Bullet Reviews #93

The Tuesday Tradition continues! This week’s Bullet Reviews cover: All-New X-Men #5, Avengers #3, Daredevil #22, Fables #125, Hoax Hunters #6, It Girl! #6, Savage Wolverine #1, Superior Spider-Man #1, Sword Of Sorcery #4, Uncanny X-Force #1, and Young Avengers #1

ALL-NEW X-MEN #5 (Marvel NOW!)
Part of me is convinced that 99% of the comic reading community hates Cyclops. Even when he was a “good guy”. I don’t mind making Cyclops a villain. I thought Cyclops being one of the main villains in Age of Apocalypse was brilliant. But no matter what, Cyclops seems to be getting shafted. Cartoons, movies, comics, the guy just can’t catch a break. So when I see young Cyclops, who is completely innocent and hasn’t done anything wrong, and people are still treating him like shit I have to wonder: why even keep him alive? If he is such a pain to everyone why keep him alive? The X-Men doesn’t kill kids. I know Bendis has a plan for his run on X-Men I just can’t see it clearly yet. The best thing that came out of X-Men #5 is Angel meeting “other” Angel. I wondered about Angel and Angel meeting, if it would affect the ramifications made by Apocalypse but I trust Bendis will foreshadow at least if not outright coming forth and talking about it. As usual the dialog between characters is excellent my favorite trait of Bendis, but overall the most disappointing issue of All-New X-Men thus far. I still look forward to future issues because I know whatever Bendis has in mind is worth my time. –Nick Furious

AVENGERS #3 (Marvel NOW!)
Although I don’t absolutely adore the artwork by Opena I can’t deny that he is remarkably talented. I don’t view him as a God among artists like most, but he is one of the few artists out there I do believe deserves a job in comics. Especially among Marvels ranks. Avengers #3 continues the story arc started in the Marvel Now! version of Avengers. The story behind the Marvel Now! Avengers is simply “Get Bigger”. Expansion is the one thing I really don’t think the Avengers need. They already have a super huge team, but I think they are wanting to go the way of something similar to Justice League (not New 52 Justice League) where they have something like 40 members. I think that idea is almost as stupid as Jonathan Hickman’s run on Avengers has been thus far. This whole story arc has to be one of the most boring Avengers story arcs yet. I don’t blame Hickman (yet) I know the man is extremely talented and I think Avengers will find its place for right now it is getting stale. For the first time in a long time I might have to remove it from my pull list because I can’t keep paying for this if I can barely muscle through reading it. Don’t let me down Hickman, I nominated you for best writer last year for your work on Fantastic Four I know you can do better than this! -Nick Furious

DAREDEVIL #22 (Marvel)
More filler for what was a bulls#it-free series. The bulk of the issue is spent on a team up with Marvel’s latest Spider-Man gimmick, Daredevil moping, and another soap opera subplot about Foggy Nelson. Chris Samnee flounders when he tries to imitate Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin. He misses that crucial sense of negative space, which Rivera and Martin would use to define places or characters through Daredevil’s perception of them, nor does he capture the subtle difference in posture Ryan Stegman has done on his Scarlet Spider comics, leaving Mark Waid to do all the work by having Matt Murdock point-blank tell the reader how “totally uncharacteristic” Spider-Man is acting. There’s no menace or oddness to Otto Octo-Spider crawling through a window, just another Spider-Man pose for another Spider-Man guest appearance.
Much more successful are the pages where Samnee patterns his work after David Aja’s Hawkeye comics, as in a sequence where Matt Murdock folds his money to distinguish which currency he has. Waid tailors the script to this strength by impersonating Matt Fraction’s jokey tone (Daredevil makes a crack about Stilt-Man, Spider-Man saying “the die is cast,” that sort of thing). It never quite works, since what made Hawkeye effective was the mixture of pulp adventure, Pop art, and Fraction’s deft reimagining of Clint Barton as an insecure blue-collar schlub (which is the opposite of Matt Murdock’s smug legal eagle), but Waid taking pot shots at the silly body swap plot of the guest character is endearing. More so than the maudlin “twist” on the final page anyway. -Andrew Taylor

FABLES #125 (Vertigo)
Snow White begins and it’s already looking like this story is going to have as sad an ending as Cubs In Toyland did. See, in Fables it’s usually a bad thing to have a storyline named after you. We pick this story up as the Fables are continuing to move into Castle Dark, making it the new Fabletown, and while there are certain people planting seeds and building schemes to get their own form of revenge, Snow and Bigby are more concerned with their missing cubs. In a nod to the first arc of Fairest, Sleeping Beauty lets Bigby take her magic car, magic in that it can travel to any world, time, and reality, so he can better search for his cubs. Stinky the Badger goes with him, because Bigby can’t drive. While Bigby and Stinky are gone the former Nurse Spratt, now the thin Leigh Duglas, her real name, tries to get close to King Cole who will be the ‘head’ of Fabletown once again, presumably, and she still wants to get back at all the beautiful Fables because she was fat and ugly for so long. I think she thinks she can bring Mister Dark back as well. Then there is the reveal of the swordsman who has been working with Leigh and helping her become thin and beautiful… He ends up being someone very close to Snow White and with Bigby gone, things are going to be very interesting. It’s very clear as to why this story is called Snow White and that Fables is a series that, even after ten years, still has a lot of magic in it and shows no signs of aging. Also? I LOVE this cover! -Skott Jimenez

HOAX HUNTERS #6 (Image)
Hoax Hunters has been quite a nice surprise so far. Now they start a new story arc with issue #6. Hoax Hunters is like Mythbusters meets Monsters but some things are really real. This new story arc starts off really well even if you haven’t read the previous issues. It starts off like any good horror style comic with some death. After that we meet the Hoax Hunters at what looks like a Comic-Con. They do this because they are in fact part of a reality TV show that people love similar to all the paranormal shows that people now love to watch. Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley bring us this wonderfully and fresh series. I do enjoy their concept and how they deliver some fear or horror some might call it. Hoax Hunters #6 gives the team a challenge to go to Hanchyville to see if the gnomes and the White King exist. They don’t want to do it but their manager makes them check this out. All in all the writing of this issue is done very well. That is why I suggest this new issue to anyone who hasn’t read the series thus far. You really get it all in this book – horror, humor and mystery. I do wish the art style was a bit different but it works well with the theme of the book. There is one page where it looks bloody awesome. I won’t spoil that page for you will have to read Hoax Hunters #6 to see what I mean. So if you like a Supernatural reality show that brings the supernatural to light with some humor and horror, then Hoax Hunters is right up your alley. Hoax Hunters is published through Image Comics. So go check it out. –Tony Calandra

IT GIRL! AND THE ATOMICS #6 (Image)
The best example of what a ‘super hero’ comic should be like continues as It Girl gets the month off and we check in on members of The Atomics (I mean, they do have their name in the title so it only makes sense that they show up, right?) as the spotlight moves to Mr. Gum, one of the more entertaining members of the group. Think Plastic Man as a Beatnik. Anyway, as the band is taking a break between shows, Mr. Gum is at a club trying to pick up chicks (who wouldn’t want to be with a drummer who has a very flexible body?) and ends up in the middle of helping, then fighting against a group of warthog-looking people who seemingly just want to reach an area near their homes where food is plenty. Mr. Gum, trying to impress a girl, helps then discovers the ‘peaceful’ warties aren’t all they seem. It’s a very fun filler issue (although there seems to be an attempt at some kind of social commentary but I chose to ignore it because I hate politics in my comics) and while seeing The Atomics and Madman in this series at long last was nice I still didn’t get to the very best part: The art in this issue was done by the one, the only, the highly talented Chynna Clugston Flores of Blue Monday fame! When I saw she was doing this issue I couldn’t wait. She hasn’t lost it, not one bit, and I would love nothing more than to have the gang from Blue Monday show up in this book. Imagine: Mr. Gum hitting on Clover and Clover enjoying the fact she can hit Mr. Gum and he just bounces back for more! That’s pure gold! This series just keeps getting better, is there any limit to the fun this book can offer? Right now the answer is (in all caps now) NO! -Skott Jimenez

SAVAGE WOLVERINE #1 (Marvel NOW!)
Now I know that my colleague Scorpio Moon reviewed this book already here on ComicBooked.com, but I think it deserves another mention. Frank Cho has made Wolverine fun again. He’s on his own, he has his “where the **** am I” moment, and then just goes to work doing “what he does best”. He’s in the Savage Land (which is probably Cho’s wet dream to play around in) and he teams up with Shanna (which probably concludes Cho’s wet dream) in order to stop an attack from the natives who have taken several SHIELD agents hostage. What I saw in this book was Wolvie letting it loose and even making a joke (“Then I take a little off the top” as he decapitates someone) and even an homage to the old Claremont days – I mean, what other writer has Wolvie saying “Cripes” these days? This was not a great book, but it was sure as hell fun… One of the most fun books from Marvel on a while. –Kelly Cassidy

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #1 (Marvel NOW!)
Another book I know we’ve reviewed in full here. Even though I appreciate the fact that this is a new take on Spider-Man, this issue didn’t enthrall me as much as it did others. Now, I am all for a new take on an old idea and to actually have Doc Ock learn the value of being a hero… It’s a great concept. But it’s also been done by Marvel in the vein of the Thunderbolts… and I found it amusing that several members of the villains in this issue were members of just that team. OK, this is a new Beetle, but still. I’m still trying to get a feeling for when Peter got those little claws in his hands – odds are he always had them, but I never remember seeing him using them… Maybe Miguel O’Hara did (Spider-Man 2099), and maybe that will be a discussion point when Miguel drops by for a visit in future issues (Slott pretty much said so). What I did like was MJ finally copping to the idea that something’s wrong with Peter – like the fact that he’s monitoring the villains and not taking them down, AND the fact that he’s drinking. She’s finally getting it which she wasn’t in the last few issues of ASM. But, I still have to ask…A “Power Dampening Field”? That takes down electronics but leaves Spidey OK? Sorry – maybe an EMP to take out the armor would make sense but if there was such a thing as a generic “Power Dampening Field” I’m pretty sure we’d see it all over the Marvel U. I appreciate what Slott is doing, but this issue just seemed to have too many questions and unknowns. I do agree that seeing Peter as a ghost in the machine as it were was too soon… We’ll see how that plays out. -Kelly Cassidy

SWORD OF SORCERY #4 (DC)
I really wanted to get into this book. I really did. Amethyst was a fun, mystical story way back in the day. I was expecting something similar but it’s just not grabbing me. At the end of issue 3, Princess Amaya was spirited back to Earth… by John Constantine. She took part in an adventure in Justice League Dark and then finishes that up by visiting Chicago, her old stomping grounds. She encounters a woman who collects mystical talismans and power, and she has not heard of Constantine? Right. Anyone in the DCU who knows magic knows who the hell Constantine is. He’s everywhere… In fact, he’s become the Wolverine of the DCU. But Amaya is still new to her powers and somehow she knows the ins and outs of her abilities here? Come on, people! And yet Constantine retains the crystal to allow her to get back to Earth? Really? This is gonna end up with another JLD crossover, but we all know how much DC is loving their crossovers these days… The backup story of Stalker was kind of interesting and reminds me a tad more of the old horror comics DC used to put out instead of the mystical. I enjoyed this better than the main story this time round, and since I absolutely hated the previous backup story that says a lot (my old rants had been the 2 stories in one book – but I liked this backup a lot). The best part of this issue, tho, was knowing it was Walt Simonson on the cover. That alone did it for me. -Kelly Cassidy

UNCANNY X-FORCE #1 (Marvel NOW!)
I’m on a roll for Marvel #1 books this week it seems! Now this book takes place after the events of Wolverine & the X-Men #24, which is when Storm made a full-blown return to the Jean Grey School. (Yes, she returned earlier, but that was the first issue that really dealt with it.) She has returned to a time when she is unsure about herself and is on a personal voyage of rediscovery – so she is once again sporting the mohawk. But this book is also about Psylocke, who is forming a new team of sorts. She is being handed the gauntlet of leadership from Logan who, as an Avenger and leading the school, cannot run the black ops team of X-Force anymore. He has, instead, unofficially passed the torch to Betsy whom he trusts for a myriad of reasons. The flashback scenes for Betsy are in black and white with a splash of color – the traditional purple which surrounded her when her powers were in use. It’s a nice subtle touch that I really enjoyed. We see the return of Fantomex… kind of… and the return of Bishop as well, but we don’t know if he’s friend or foe. I enjoyed the appearance of Puck, but this kind of hints at no new Alpha Flight series (and that last miniseries was actually really good), and then we have Spiral, Psylocke’s archnemesis who now appears to be on the team if the cover has anything to say about it… I’m just wondering that, with a few X-Men books being cut, is there value in having 2 X-Force books? -Kelly Cassidy

YOUNG AVENGERS #1 (Marvel NOW!)
Alright, now there are a lot of rave reviews about this book and I really hate having to go against the grain but I was really, really looking forward to this book and, well, I was kind of let down but let me explain why:First, the reason I was jazzed for this book was it was Kieron Gillen continuing to write Loki (NOT kid Loki, he isn’t a sidekick so stop calling him that). He really defined Loki in this stage of his existence during his run on the amazingly entertaining, and criminally underrated, Journey Into Mystery. I was excited to buy it and get it home because of that only. The problem was I hadn’t taken into consideration that Loki wasn’t the headlining character in this series. The problem comes from the other characters here. I have no idea who they are and up until now never wanted to even check them out. I don’t know who or what Hulkling is, the one called Wiccan just seems like a whiner, and the others I just don’t know. But it’s Gillen writing Loki. For that alone I’ll stick around and see if these other characters are interesting enough to continue to follow along with Loki. So while I cannot give this a rave review, it wasn’t because the book was bad, it’s because I haven’t an interest in or clue about who these other characters are. But I’m willing to stick around for a few issues and see where this goes. Especially since Loki seems to be trying to stop Wiccan from doing something stupid like bringing a version of Hulkling’s mother into the 616 from a different reality. He still knows more about what’s going on than you would think. There is a foundation for a highly entertaining series here and that’s all I really care about. It’s better than Avengers NOW! and New Avengers. -Skott Jimenez

There you have it. Now it’s YOUR turn, that’s right, you can’t just come here and read our wisdom without giving some back. Scroll down to our comments section and sound off on your views of these books. Feedback is always welcome!

And as always you can get these comics and more in our Digital Store!